Trillium
by Mell8
Summary: We began to teach her as we had taught each other until she became like us, one being in three parts. Our single soul was split between the three of us. D/G/B
1. Chapter 1

Trillium  
Prologue  
By Mell8

* * *

A.N: I'm not really sure what to make of this story. It's short and it's meant to be short. The chapters are barely more than 1000 words each and I can't envision this growing beyond six chapters. Still, D/G/B is so much fun to write!!

Also, it's not really compliant with anything. Maybe a bit of CS but honestly, break out the AU goodness!

Trillium: a plant with a solitary three-petaled flower above a whorl of three leaves.

* * *

"_We'll be friends forever. Right, loves?"_

III

"Draco, I have decided that from today onward you shall be friends with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Their fathers have served me well and in turn, their sons shall serve my son well. You have no need for any other acquaintances until I choose your bride."

III

"Blaise, dear. I am getting married again. He is a Baron with millions of galleons in his vaults but has no liking for children. Therefore, I am sending you to Italy. Do not bother writing because, from today until he is dead, I have no children."

III

"Ginevra! How dare you sneak out into the woods on your own. Do you have any idea how worried your father and I have been? There are dangerous people living on the other side of those woods. We would hate for you to get hurt. From now on, if you're going to go play in those woods, you must bring one of your brothers with you."

III

"_Loves? Loves, where have you gone? Please return to me!" _


	2. Chapter 2

Trillium

Chapter One

By Mell8

* * *

_I can still feel their skin against my fingers, soft with youth and taut with beauty. I can still see their hair as it is blown by the wind. The opposite colors, pale white and deep black, looked so striking when their heads were bent together. _

_I used to watch them for hours as they lay together in the clearing. I found it refreshing to see two people just lay there in the snowdrifts, autumn leaves, or spring flowers; especially since none of my brothers were ever able to stay in place with such perfect stillness, such serenity to themselves. _

_I wanted to know what their peace felt like but I couldn't intrude. I didn't want to destroy it and I feared that my presence would shatter the air and they would hate me for it. _

_After weeks of my staring one of them finally caught on that they were not alone. I watched from my hiding place amongst the roots under the large fir tree as they strolled into the clearing, hand in hand, and took their usual spot in the center. There was a slight drizzle that day, I remember, and water had dripped into my eyes. _

_I suppose I might have moved too fast and one of them caught my movement, but perhaps it was something else. Either way, when I looked back up from my sleeve my eyes were met with their own. The bright blue was so startling in the dusky skin and the dark grey reflected the flash of lightning that sang through the air at the moment; a portent that the world had just changed in that instant, perhaps? _

_They stood as one and walked over to me as I scurried deeper into my little hole. Even in my fright I had marveled then, as I still do now, at how they can move with perfect synchrony yet never even glace at the other. They were just that in tune with their bodies, even at such a young age, that they could move together without the slightest aid from the other. It's beautiful to see when all three of us move like that. _

_They found me where I hid, gently pulled me out, and had me join them in that clearing. I learned from them, about the beauty of nature and how it should be revered for the magnificent gift it is. I learned of the wonders of our own bodies, about how my limbs and theirs could move with perfect grace, of how a tilt of the head or the crook of an eyebrow could mean so much if one were to only look. _

_I was only eight at the time and they nine so any pleasures we might have had were simply from the mere act of sharing in the wonder surrounding us. But despite our age and therefore lack of carnal knowledge and, of course, lack of the growth of hormones that would prerequisite such things, I still learned their bodies as they learned mine. I was able to move with the same synchrony as they and I did it with pleasure. _

_Then came the day I was discovered. My mum had found some extra chores for me to do in one of her attempts to keep me occupied while all of my older brothers, except Ron, were at Hogwarts. Ron disliked playing with girls when he was ten years of age (he still does now but for different reasons) so wouldn't play with me. But my mother couldn't find me anywhere in the house or the yard, so when I returned from the clearing that day she was terribly displeased. _

_We met one last time, in our clearing, and the jarring note of disharmony that met us told me all I needed to know. He was leaving for another country, my dark skinned companion, while my pale skinned one was being forced to accompany others in his daily life, leaving no time to escape to us. Even my own pain of having to escape from a watcher every time I wished to venture out to meet them caused a pall to fall over the clearing. _

_We left that day with heavy hearts and pain in our souls. I had never learned their names and had never told them mine, true, but we knew each other so much more deeply than names could conjure. _

_I never saw them again until Hogwarts and the differences were so grating that I spent my first year wallowing in the company of the filth that was Tom Riddle. I wanted someone else to invade my mind and to take away my will because if I wasn't in control I could not think of what we had lost when we left that clearing for the last time. _

_In my second year I began to watch them again. I had to find them separately because they were never in the others company. My pale friend was cruel and cold. His two hulking brutes he called friends and his pug-nosed girlfriend and soon to be fiancé had changed him into a creature I did not know nor like. _

_My dusky friend had grown introverted and reclusive. He was by himself mostly but every once in a while I would see him gaze after our pale friend in longing. He was alone by choice as he waited in the shadows like me for our third to find us again. _

_I soon learned their names, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, and it gave me pause. It was interesting to note just who shared a portion of the Weasley forest, miles and miles apart of course, but still close enough for us to have met. _

_The Malfoys were a hard lot, self-aggrandizing and evil. It spoke of who Draco had become once his father had taken him under his wing. It was nothing like the true Draco I remembered. _

_The Zabinis were a less well-known lot but were no less wealthy than the Malfoys. I think, perhaps, that the reason Lucius Malfoy did not wish for his son to associate with Blaise was because of fear of usurpment of their position in power in society. Still, all that was truly known about Blaise is that his mother is the most prominent black widow ever to commit multiple perfect crimes, thereby leaving her out of prison and with much of her various deceased husbands' wealth in her coffers. Of Blaise himself, nothing is truly known. _

_But the day is coming when we will be forced back together, I can feel it. One day soon we will again walk together with perfect synchrony. _

_I can only hope it is not to our deaths. _

III

Ginny put down her diary and quill with a sigh. She had been writing that first entry for hours, trying to get it perfectly right. Now her hand was cramping and her inkwell dry.

"Ginny, your brother's looking for you," Hermione said as she stuck her head into Ginny's sixth year dorm. "He said something about dinner. I think he wants to head down if you want to join us."

"Yeah, thanks," Ginny smiled back and tucked her journal into her robes. Her stomach gave an audible rumble and Ginny blushed at Hermione's laughter.

"I guess you really are hungry, Gin," she giggled and led they way down the stairs into the Gryffindor common room.

"I don't think I've eaten since breakfast," Ginny said. "I was busy writing all day."

"Homework?" Hermione asked.

Ginny stroked her journal and smiled behind Hermione's back. "Mmm, something like that."

"Oi! Ginny, there you are," Ron called from across the room. Harry shook his head at Ron's side and his eyes apologized for Ron's boisterous behavior to everyone who looked up from their homework and scowled at Ron.

"Let's go eat," Ginny grinned and looped her arm through Ron's. "I'm starving."

They made their way downstairs, down the marble staircase and into the Entrance Hall, and were headed towards the Great Hall, when Malfoy stopped them.

"Well look what we have here," he sneered coldly. "Incest from the two youngest Weasleys? How crass. But then I suppose it's something you should expect from someone of such low class background."

Ron turned purple and would have leapt at Malfoy, fists flying in rage, if Harry and Hermione had not grabbed the back of his robes.

"You take that back, Malfoy!" Ron snarled as he struggled to get free.

Ginny was ignored by the trio and by Malfoy. He had wanted to get a rise out of Ron for entertainment, and had done so easily, so had not been aiming his comments towards Ginny. Still, the comment stung her. He should have known just where her heart lay. She had given it to both him and Blaise back in the woods all those years ago.

She walked slowly forwards, unnoticed by everyone as Ron had now progressed to swearing and was dangerously close to ripping his robes. Malfoy finally noticed her when she stepped into his line of sight. Ginny raised one hand with all the grace he had taught her and caught that familiar look in his eyes as she brought her palm stinging across his cheek.

The corners of his eyes had bent ever so slightly in confusion, as if he didn't quite remember where he knew her from, as if the memory was just beyond his recollection.

Ginny cursed his father again as she turned away amid the shocked silence. Even Ron had grown silent as the slap echoed through the Hall.

Ginny walked toward the Great Hall doors, ignoring Parkinson's screeches of promised pain in return for daring to harm "her Draco" and Ron's laughter.

She reached into her robes and pulled out her journal as she grew even with the dark recess just to the side of the open door and dropped it. As she walked into the Great Hall, Ginny could see a dusky hand carefully reach out of the shadows and pick up the book.

She smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

Trillium

Chapter Two

By Mell8

* * *

_I first met Draco Malfoy at a Ministry party. A high up Ministry official was courting my mother at the time and had invited us both to attend. Upon our arrival my mother immediately took to shameless flirting. She had been without a husband for quite a few years, ever since she killed my father, I believe. I was only six at the time and had no knowledge of why my father was gone, just that he was. _

_I was left to my own devices for most of the night. I sat by myself at a table in the back and out of the way and watched all the women in dresses and men in dress robes dancing together in a whirling riot of colors and laughter. I saw my mother pass by a few times, each time on the arm of a different man, and wondered each time if I meant something to her. I saw other mothers dancing with their young sons but my mother never looked for me. _

_It was Draco who found me, dressed smartly in black robes that made his skin look like a pallor rather than paleness. He sat down next to me, poured us both a glass of sweet cordial, and stayed there until his father sent someone to fetch him. _

_We never spoke to each other, we didn't have to; just the others presence was enough. _

_Throughout the years we continued to meet up at various functions. I know that I always searched for him first and found us an out of the way table and two glasses of cordial so I could be prepared for when he finally escaped from the social niceties society forced on him. There we would sit silently and relax until the evening ended. _

_It was only quite a few functions later that I felt he needed more time away from his stifling family than just hiding at functions with me. I spoke to him for the first time after a full year of blessed silence about a clearing I knew of in the woods that would afford us privacy where we could meet and talk and be free for just a few more moments. He readily agreed and for the next year we met up there. _

_Draco was forever under the total control of his father, who merely wanted his son to reflect him like a perfect mirror. My own mother scorned me despite the fact that I had been willingly borne in her efforts to keep her current husband at the time, my father, interested solely in her. Draco's father rarely ever let him think, let alone make a single decision for himself. In essence, I had to order Draco to show up at that clearing the first time, he was so unused to doing things for himself. _

_Sometimes we would just lay there in that clearing, relaxing from the troubles at home. Sometimes we spoke. With each conversation and with each bit of silence I could feel Draco's mind begin to work. Perhaps what his father said was not always true. Perhaps he could do some things for himself. _

_I know that these are the thoughts that ran through Draco's mind, not because he told me, but because I know Draco. I grew to love the way one eyebrow would raise in surprise and shock or just to make a point. How his lips would twitch ever so slightly in laughter because he had not yet learned how to laugh without his father's approval just yet. _

_And then she arrived. _

_We felt her presence for days before we actually saw her. We could feel the strength in her gaze and the wanting. We could sense the warmth she had always known and the need for something more, something only we could give her. _

_At first we were reticent. We didn't want some interloper intruding on our time in freedom from our families. So one day we decided to confront her. If she fit, we would invite her to stay. If not, well the consequences would have been dire for her. _

_We looked up as one. Our thoughts were synchronized by then and we could move our bodies as if we were one person. And we saw her. _

_She was a tiny little thing crouched amid the roots of a nearby tree. Her red hair was in complete disarray and she was using her sleeve to wipe rainwater out of her eyes. The instant she looked up, we knew. Those brown eyes told us everything about her and it sang to our combined souls. We began to teach her as we had taught each other until she became like us, one being in three parts. Our single soul was split between the three of us. _

_And then came the sundering. _

_Ginny, as I learned she was called when I saw her at Hogwarts, tried to fill the empty space we left with her family and friends, all the while knowing that we were the only specific fit to her fractured soul. _

_I spent my time sequestered in Italy drinking and having sex (or what I had thought was sex in a ten year old's mind). Now that I'm older there are very few days when I am sober and without at least one girl waiting for me in my bed. _

_I can't speak to Ginny, not like this. I think it would hurt worse for us both if we reconnected what we had, only with one piece missing like a gaping, bloody wound. _

_After our year long separation I finally met up with Draco on the train to Hogwarts in our first year. I walked up to him, then around him, and continued on my way to find an empty compartment as I tried to ignore the tears that were forming in my eyes. _

_I still knew Draco's body like my own. Even drinking and drugs could not dull that memory. As I walked up to him I saw nothing in his eyes, in his body language, that spoke of him remembering me. I was gone from his mind as thoroughly as he could never be from mine. _

_Something had taken both Ginny and I from Draco in that one year of separation and now Draco was that empty mirror his father had always wanted him to become. _

_Does Draco ache with emptiness in those two spots where parts of his soul are missing like Ginny and I? Does he realize what he has lost or what was taken from him? Does he know what he stands to lose the second his father decides to hand him over to the Dark Lord? _

_I don't know. I do know that his fiancé, hand picked by his father for being completely tractable to all of Lucius's orders, and his two best friends were all put in place to lead Draco exactly where his father wants him to go. _

_Can you think for yourself at all, Draco? _

III

Blaise held the journal clutched tightly in one hand as he quickly made his way up to the Owlery. He had to catch the train to go home for winter break and it was leaving within the hour. Still, his mission in the Owlery was more important than being on time for the train.

He whistled sharply as he reached the top of the tower and two owls came flying over.

"I want you to catch up with the train after it leaves," he said to the owls as he tied a letter to one and a letter and the journal to the other. "This one," he said to the owl with just the letter, "goes to Ginevra Weasley."

The owl hooted and flew into the air.

"This one," Blaise tapped the journal. "Goes to Draco Malfoy. But!" he added when the owl was about to fly away, "you need to deliver it to him inconspicuously. I don't want anyone else to know he has this journal. Do you understand?"

The owl hooted and took to the air and the trains whistle echoed up from Hogsmeade station. The train was leaving.

Blaise swore and whipped out his wand to call his broom. He had to be home during break because if they got his letters and if Draco decided to read that journal, well, good things would happen.

He flew out of the tower, across the grounds at breakneck speed, and just barely managed to alight on the train before it began to move.

Please Draco, Ginny, he thought. Please.


	4. Chapter 4

Trillium

Chapter Three

By Mell8

* * *

Draco looked down at the journal in his hands with something akin to shock on his face. It was an emotion he had no use for so part of his shock was the fact that he was shocked at all.

But still, how had that owl gotten into the loo anyway? There were no windows and he didn't remember it flying in after him when he entered. All he knew was that somehow an owl had delivered this to him and he didn't know why.

The letter instructed him to read the journal and then come meet them.

He wanted to say, 'Meet who', and toss the journal in the rubbish bin. Yet, he knew the scents that mingled over the leather binding of the journal. It tickled something deep inside him, something he vaguely remembered suppressing in order to protect himself. It…intrigued him and his shock grew with every thought.

He wanted to know why he was suddenly feeling these emotions. He wanted to know why he felt so drawn to those vaguely remembered scents. He wanted to know why he thought he had suppressed something on purpose and why it had protected him.

He could go back to the train compartment he shared with Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle and read it there, but then they would all ask what he was reading and he would have to share. Then Pansy would tell his father who would destroy this intriguing book.

No, Draco thought as he reached forward and locked the bathroom door. He didn't need to go back to them and their mindless chatter. Not yet anyway.

He hoisted himself up to sit on the counter next to the sink, cracked open the journal, and began to read.

III

The clearing had become terribly overgrown in the eight years they had been gone. Lack of use had allowed trees to encroach on their sacred space and flowers to bloom over what they had thought at the time were permanent indentations of their bodies in the ground.

But, with the white Christmas snow blanketing everything, Ginny could imagine that nothing had changed.

She clutched the note in her hands that Blaise had written telling her to go to their clearing. She didn't want to be here, not really. It brought back all the memories of what they had lost. She also didn't want only Blaise to show up. True, she loved Blaise, but being with him and only him would only make her pine for the person she didn't have. It would be cruel to both her and Blaise.

And yet she had a feeling when she woke up this morning. It was a feeling she had not had since that last time they all met in the clearing when she had been nine. It was the feeling she had come to associate with their call, telling her they were going to be there and therefore she had to come too.

She settled down into the roots of the old fir tree and waited.

It was odd seeing Blaise show up alone. Every other time he had walked into the clearing hand in hand with Draco. He looked bereft without him.

Ginny stayed hidden. If Draco didn't show up, she didn't want to be here. As long as Blaise didn't know she was there she wouldn't have to speak with him.

But Blaise looked unerringly towards where she was hidden with a small smile on his face so she rose and went to join him in the center of their clearing.

They waited for two hours huddled together as the skies opened and snow began to blanket them. Draco never showed. As every minute ticked by Ginny felt her shoulders get tenser and tenser and her heart break just a little bit more.

How many times had all three of them shown up at exactly the same time by mere coincidence? Not today, clearly.

The third hour passed before Ginny gave up. Her shoulders drooped and she pulled herself free of Blaise's arms.

"He's not coming, love," she whispered. "We've lost him." The tears in her eyes mirrored those shed by Blaise as he too stood.

By an unspoken agreement they both turned away from each other and began to head towards home. It was Blaise's gasp that made Ginny look back one last time.

Draco stood there, awkwardly, with the journal clutched in front of him. He looked shocked at himself for being there, as if he wasn't quite sure what was going on.

"I had to come," he mumbled. "I don't really know why but suddenly my feet led me here."

Ginny giggled. "At least some part of you remembers us."

Draco's eyebrow twitched. "A Weasley," he said with a halfhearted sneer.

"Love," Blaise whispered in shock. "Do you remember us now? We poured our souls into that journal to help you return to us."

Both he and Ginny walked forward together, displaying a shadow of what had once been perfect synchrony. Draco stood his ground despite the confusion and slight fear he showed in his eyes. No, he didn't remember them, not entirely, but there was something there that wasn't there before.

"I remember this clearing, and peace. I remember feeling peaceful," Draco said softly as Ginny and Blaise stood next to him. "But I remember forcing myself to forget something important; something that was hurting me; something that my father wanted gone."

"Us," Ginny whispered. "We were forced apart because of our families. Blaise and I occupied ourselves with trivialities while we waited to be reunited. You never had that luxury, not with your father around."

"If your father ever found out about us," Blaise shuddered. "You had to become what he wanted you to become or you would have been lost."

"I've been missing something," Draco said softly. "And now it's back. If only I could remember."

"Come and lie with us," Ginny smiled at him. "We'll help you remember."

As one they turned and made their way to the center of the clearing. They all remembered just how to position themselves so all their heads were pillowed comfortably and so they were snuggled and warm on the cold ground, Ginny and Blaise through long and wistful memory and Draco from some unconscious source.

And then they lay in silence as the memories washed over them; and they remembered.


	5. Chapter 5

Trillium

Chapter Four

By Mell8

* * *

_My brother knew something had changed when I returned home later that day, but he could not point out what specifically. _

_I knew, obviously. _

_I was whole for the first time in years. My soul was put back to rights; I was with my loves again. Draco and Blaise had each kissed me gently on the lips before taking each other's hands and walking out of the clearing like they were supposed to. I kissed them back and smiled, happy to see answering smiles in return. _

_I was happy and it was marvelous. _

_The rest of the break passed in sweet harmony for me. We met when we could, Draco, Blaise, and I. But Draco still had obligations to his father that he could not yet abandon so he left his memories with us when he left and retrieved them when he returned to us. _

_I had to escape my mother's watchful eye. She was worried about the war and if I disappeared for too long she was liable to call out the Aurors and the Order to go searching for me. _

_Only Blaise had complete freedom to himself. His flighty mother had taken up with a Baron in Paris and hadn't seen her son in over a year. He could come and go as he pleased and often would go and sit in the clearing on the off chance that Draco and I could escape from our overbearing families to come spend time together. _

_The train ride back to school was another moment that will be imprinted in my mind forever. Blaise and I, through some sort of unspoken agreement found an empty compartment and sat together. We didn't expect any company as Ron was with Harry and Hermione and they were all happily oblivious, and Blaise didn't have any friends. So when the compartment door slid open Blaise and I looked up in shock. _

_When Draco stepped into the room I'm sure our jaws must have hit the floor. Draco had abandoned the hand picked friends his father had chosen for him in order to spend time with us. It was as good as a slap in the face to his father and neither Blaise nor I would ever have dreamed that Draco would so willingly step away from his father. _

_But Draco had and as he slid into our arms with a pleased sigh we knew that finally Draco was beginning to heal. _

_We made love for the first time a week later, ensconced in Draco's private room. _

_The first time I was in the middle but the second I was on the bottom with both of them on top. And by the time the third round came I wasn't sure where I was in our pile of limbs and sweating bodies. All I knew was that their arms were around me, and their kisses rained down on my face, and that I returned their caress and their kiss with equal fervor. _

_But the pain I remember feeling before is still there, no, not the pain of separation, the pain of something terrible happening in the near future. I can feel it creeping up behind us, ready to attack and kill without mercy. _

_I am whole now that I know my loves have returned to me. Only my family will stand in my way, but I know that once they see just what I have with Draco and Blaise they will step aside. _

_Blaise is whole now that he has us as well. Even the loneliness he constantly experiences from being abandoned by his mother and having no friends has faded. He had not fallen back into drink or drugs or sex with faceless women because we are there for him. _

_Draco is our weak link. He is whole when he is with us but fragmented whenever he is not. His father pulls him away with iron chains and horrid obligations. Draco receives constant letters telling him what to do, who to torment, how to treat Pansy Parkinson each week. When he is with us Draco can ignore these orders but when he is not…_

_I have walked past him when he was clutching a letter from his father in his hand and he was hurrying to find Pansy and bed her, just because his father told him to. Only my gentle hand on his arm freed him from the compulsion. _

_His father could tell him when to shit and when to breathe and whether it was okay to let his heart beat at a certain time and Draco would follow to the exact letter. Draco fought against it, of course, but he had been so thoroughly brainwashed over the years that he didn't know how to escape. Blaise and I had taken to following Draco about the castle, to and from classes, at meals, everywhere. Whenever Draco received a letter one of us would walk past to remind him just who he belongs to and Draco would remember until he received the next letter. _

_But I love them so much and I know we will work through this. We survived being torn apart for almost ten years, we can survive through this as well. _

III

Ginny closed the journal with a soft snap and sighed. She kissed the cover gently and hoped that her tears wouldn't mar the delicate leather. She loved them and suffered with them. Draco was suffering right now, suffering badly, and she didn't know what to do.

Years of conditioning had molded Draco into the perfect puppet for Lucius and Ginny was beginning to think that the only way to free Draco was to kill his father.

For now they were holding up fine. As long as someone was always there to watch Draco just in case he received another letter they would be okay.

She was happy. That was all that mattered. But she was going to pass the journal on to Blaise where he could read her concerns without her having to voice them. And then they would give it to Draco to read so that together they could find a solution.

Love conquers all, Ginny thought with a smile.


	6. Chapter 6

Trillium

Chapter Five

By Mell8

* * *

_Draco loves his father and Lucius loves Draco back. That's the crux of the matter. Many people believe that, as a Death Eater, Lucius must abuse his family; that poor Narcissa is married to a wife beater; that Draco suffers as the son. I have to say, all those rumors are simply not true. _

_Lucius cares for Narcissa and for Draco. Lucius cares. _

_The issue is that Lucius believes that he is perfect. The way he is and the way he acts around others is the perfect example of pureblooded perfection, and therefore Draco must act the same way. _

_And again, that is the crux of the matter. Lucius loves his son and wants Draco to be perfect. Since Lucius considers himself to be the epitome of perfection he has come to the conclusion that the only way to make Draco perfect is to make him into an exact copy of his father. _

_Lucius fails to see that he is not perfect, that he is, in fact, one of the most flawed people in the Wizarding World. But because he has not seen that, he has forced his son to become like him. _

_Spells, potions, brainwashing, I'm sure Lucius has used them all on his son. And Draco, a boy who was never like his father with far too much Black blood in his veins, was forced to conform. _

_Now I watch Draco fighting it, I see his struggle every time a letter appears in his hands. I can taste his fear on his skin and can feel his body tremble. _

_Then there's Ginny. She follows Draco around like a bloodhound on a scent and because of her, half of the letters never even reach Draco's hands. Because of her, he hasn't left us for the path his father wishes him to take in the name of his ideals of pureblooded perfection. _

_I'm beginning to agree with Ginny that the best way to free Draco and to make him his own person is to kill his misguided father. _

_But how to tell Draco that? To outright say it would crush him, because Draco loves his father despite Lucius' failings. _

_I have read many of the letters Ginny and I have confiscated and they worry me. Lucius is confused and worried because his son hasn't written. He is angry because he keeps getting letters from Parkinson telling him that Draco is ignoring her, that he disappears for hours on end and comes back smiling peacefully and smelling of sex and love. The fact that Crabbe and Goyle have been seen wandering about the castle without Draco nearby to tell (order) them what to do is a terrible disaster as far as Lucius Malfoy is concerned. _

_And the most worrying for Lucius Malfoy is the fact that Draco has not expressed any willingness to get himself branded by the Dark Lord and tortured into his evil service. Lucius wants Draco to become exactly like him, to walk in his very footsteps, and Lucius is a Death Eater so therefore his son must be too. _

_But I watch Draco as the weeks pass and he grows stronger. He hasn't felt the need to go find Pansy, or Crabbe and Goyle, or the need to harass Potter and friends. Instead he finds extra time to spend with Ginny and me. He takes long walks around the grounds or the Forest just to enjoy nature. He sits by the lake with his bare feet lightly paddling the water while the Squid watches. He breathes just to breathe, he smiles because he can, and, most importantly, he lives because he knows he can make his own choices. _

_If only Lucius thought the same way. _

_I have spoken with Snape about any Potions that he can think of that would make the drinker feel compelled to obey the maker's every wish. He went white for a second as if my simple question had brought up some terrible memories before nodding to me. _

"_Draco," he said by way of understanding and with another nod turned and swept out of the room. He would try to find an antidote now that he knows Draco wants his freedom but I have to doubt that it will come on time. _

_The letters are becoming more and more insistent, more and more…crazed is the best word I can apply to the sheer insanity Lucius is displaying in every new letter. _

_I doubt Lucius will be able to wait until Summer for Draco to return home to make sure that Draco has not deviated from his careful plans, especially since I'm bringing Draco to a place Lucius cannot enter, my house, as soon as the train drops us off at Kings Cross. _

_My best bet would be that Lucius is planning a way to get into Hogwarts to secure his son right now. I don't know if it will be in the form of an attack by the Death Eaters or if Lucius will simply infiltrate the castle himself. All I know is that Lucius will be here eventually. _

_I pray that we have months of freedom before hand. _

III

Blaise dropped the journal on the table in Draco's private rooms as he walked in. Draco would find it and read it eventually but Blaise didn't want to hand it to him directly. They knew each other more intimately than just a melding of body and mind would allow but there were still some subjects that Blaise couldn't just toss out into the open. The journal was a perfect way to air those thoughts without the torment of a direct conversation.

Blaise walked into the bedroom and stopped short just inside the doorway. Draco stood in the middle of the room, pale and trembling, with an unopened letter in his hands.

Blaise cursed at himself. Ginny was in the Gryffindor Common room right now, making an appearance so Ron and Harry would be satisfied that she was safe and hale. Blaise should have been with Draco to protect him from his father.

But Blaise had been writing in the journal in the library and Draco had been alone when this newest letter had arrived. Blaise was just glad that Draco had grown enough backbone to resist the compulsion to open it.

With shaky hands Blaise took the letter from Draco and opened it. He only had to read the first line before he knew.

He was coming.


	7. Chapter 7

Trillium

Chapter Six

By Mell8

* * *

"Daddy."

The whisper was soft and tear filled so it took Ginny and Blaise a few seconds to place it. But then Draco rolled over in his sleep and showed them his tear stained cheeks and they knew who had spoken.

Draco had read the journal and his father's letter. He knew what was going to happen, what had to happen. There were only two possible outcomes of this battle.

Either Lucius died or Lucius took Draco away from his loves.

Neither option made the boy happy but he understood the stakes and what he served to lose if his father won. Ginny and Blaise were his world and even though he loved his father, Draco couldn't give them up even though it would mean his father's life.

The battle was nearing. Death Eaters had been spotted in Hogsmeade and Dumbledore had built a force of students who were prepared to combat this. Draco, Ginny, and Blaise had refused to join. Dumbledore's idea was to arm the students with better knowledge but the three of them fought differently.

They were one soul split into three separate beings and their fighting was always going to be done best when together.

Ginny snuggled into Draco's arms and let him clutch at her body while Blaise melded himself against Draco's back and held him to keep the nightmares away.

The whole castle was on high alert, but because of the impending threat Ron had forgotten about his sister again. She had taken it upon herself to stay with her loves this last night.

The explosion that hit early the next morning destroyed the Astronomy Tower and effectively woke up the whole school. Ginny, Draco, and Blaise all shot up from their shared bed and quickly found clothes and wands as they prepared themselves for the fight.

The first wave of Death Eaters had arrived via broomstick and while everyone in the castle was rushing to avoid being crushed by the crumbling tower, they broke through the main gates and entered en-mass.

Draco, Ginny, and Blaise came at a run from the dungeons. Draco was on point wand raised high and blazing with power while Blaise and Ginny ran at his sides, just half a step behind, wands out protectively.

They stopped for a moment at the edge of the fray to gauge where they were needed the most before diving in. Beforehand the battle had been tight with both sides matched somewhat evenly. Now, with the addition of the three of them, the tide of Death Eaters began to push back.

They danced as they flung spells, or so it would seem to anyone watching. They moved through the crowd as one, weaving around each other in their constant triangle formation.

It was beautiful to see their movement amid the bloodshed and pain. Fighters on both sides could be caught stopping to watch them. There were no weaknesses in their defense because there was always someone to watch their back and sides. There were constant strengths in their attacks because they were proficient at melding their spells together so all of their strength was pooled into one, powerful spell that cut swaths of Death Eaters in their path.

Sometimes, when they all turned their spell work towards the direction they were facing as they weaved in and out and around each other, Draco sent a spell at the back of Ginny's head and, milliseconds later, her head was gone and the spell flashed through hitting the Death Eater Draco had been targeting, and Blaise slid into place where Ginny had been only seconds later. If Ginny had moved too late or Blaise too soon it would have been their heads exploding, but, their connection allowed then to know just what the others were planning and where, exactly the others were at any point in time. Their formations never faltered, their spell work never failed, because they were one.

And then Lucius was there and it was as if everything froze in that moment. Everyone who knew anything about why this battle was being waged knew that the meeting between Lucius and Draco would be momentous.

"Draco, come home with me. Stop this foolish fighting," Lucius said as he held out his hand towards his only son.

Draco took Ginny and Blaise's hands in his own for strength before releasing them and stepping forward.

"I'm sorry, father," he said strongly. Ginny and Blaise could sense the faint tremble along Draco's spine that told them that he was all bravado but despite that he was still holding firm. "I don't want to follow your every whim and wish for the rest of my life. I'm my own person and I've chosen to stay with my loves and to fight for what they believe in, not what you want me to believe in."

"No!" Lucius hissed. "You are my son. You will come home right now and I will present you to the Dark Lord like my father presented me when I was seventeen. You will become a Death Eater and you will continue the Malfoy line, exactly like I have done."

Draco laughed sadly. "But don't you see, father? The Death Eaters are going to lose. Your Dark Lord is going to fail. And then the Malfoy line would have ended because both you and I would have been in Azkaban for the rest of our lives. No, I choose a different path where the Malfoy name will survive and flourish in this new world."

Lucius shook his head sadly. "Then you leave me no choice. I will end our line myself. I will kill you and then kill myself and then none of your fears will ever come true!"

His laughter rang through the silent hall as everyone, Students, Teachers, Death Eaters, Aurors, and Order members, got to see the madness Lucius Malfoy had been hiding from the world; the madness caused by Voldemort and by trying to fix his errant son, and just by living his life with a false, fabricated, sense of ideals.

He raised his wand towards his only son and his mouth opened to utter the spell that would destroy Draco forever, and, suddenly, there was a flash of red hair and dark skin, and Lucius Malfoy was no more.

* * *

A.N. Arg...I'm really not all too happy with this chapter. I just couldn't figure out how to get the true emotion of the scene to flow. I think the plot might have suffered because of it. Tell me what you think, where you think I can improve this, or whether you think it's lovely. I will take everything everyone says into consideration and if I agree with what you say I will fix this chapter until I am completely happy with it.

There's only the epilogue left now so I hope you've liked this story.

Thanks,

Mell8


	8. Chapter 8

Trillium

Epilogue

By Mell8

--

_Ginny and Blaise are standing together at the gate as I write this, father. And I—your son—I am standing over your grave again. It is the anniversary of your death for the sixth time since my loves killed you. _

_I cannot leave flowers because you do not deserve beauty. I cannot leave rocks, as some traditions dictate, because I pray that my remembrance of you will not be as unending as the strong stone. No, I refuse to bow down to you even in memory. _

_You tortured me, father, out of love and I loved you for it, but it was still torture. I suffer even now, knowing that I loved you and because of that love I almost lost the life I am living right now. _

_Ginny's pregnant, father, and even if the babe is Blaise's child I will still love it as my own. But if it is my child then it proves that I was correct when I said that propagating our line would only occur if we abandoned Voldemort. Because, just as I said he would, Voldemort lost. _

_Harry Potter is the savior of the Wizarding World and I am happy, so very, very happy, with my life now. _

_Blaise and I have gone into business together. Legitimate business. I know you must be rolling in your grave to know that I have abandoned all of your dealings with less than reputable characters. Ginny was a Quidditch star but now that she's pregnant Blaise and I won't let her play. One Bludger to the stomach and terrible things would happen. _

_Still, despite being pulled from her job, Ginny is very happy. _

_Blaise is happy too. His mother finally acknowledged that he exists. Of course, he had to earn more money than what she has saved in Gringotts through his job and prove that he was a_ rich_ member of society before that happened. Now even her newest and soon to be dead husband is willing to understand that just because his wife has a child doesn't mean that he has any obligations to fulfill. _

_And me, father? Well, I am happy. Our first child is on the way and there is peace in which to raise him or her. What more can I ask for? _

_Happiness, I think, does come from whom you are, like you always taught me. But you were wrong, father, in saying that others steal happiness from you. I have found happiness in Blaise and Ginny's arms and it is absolutely wonderful. _

_Mother is doing all right, although I'm sure you know that considering how often she visits your grave. She misses you terribly but would have been devastated if both of us had been dead. She understands why Blaise and Ginny killed you, honest. She even agrees with them most of the time. _

_Now I have some news that is sure to make you boil in agony down there. _

_I was invited to the Burrow, Ginny's family's home, this past weekend. Ever since they saw Ginny, Blaise, and I fight together, first against you and then later in the final war against Voldemort, both Molly and Arthur have been quite welcoming. They know a Wizards bond when they see it; they are purebloods from old magic families after all even if they didn't teach many of those values to their children. _

_They regret that now, I think. Ronald, their youngest, married that Muggleborn Hermione Granger that he's always been parading around with, so the Weasley line is no longer pure. Also, because they didn't teach their children about these bonds Ginny has been having a frightful time getting her siblings to see how happy we are together. _

_But all that doesn't matter because she has Blaise and I. _

_Will I ever get married, father? I don't know. Pansy has asked me no less than seventeen times, just as you wanted. I would love to marry Blaise and Ginny but there aren't any binding spells made for three. If you were alive you could have come up with something, father. You were always smart when it came to those sorts of things. Sometimes I do wish I were more like you, just so I could solve all these problems. But I also always have to worry that these thoughts are remnants of the spells and potions you plied me with. Will I ever be completely and totally free from your influence? Do I want to be? I'm not sure. _

_You should see the world as it is now, father. The Ministry is going through severe reform. There's no more bribery or work only for personal gain. We're even in contact with other Wizarding governments and international trade is filling the coffers of every Gringotts vault. It's a laugh, really, because no one in our world had ever even considered that there might be powerful countries with powerful Witches and Wizards outside of our own, and, as galling as it is for me to say, it was because of the Muggleborns that we even discovered it at all. _

_Voldemort did something good for us in the end, as hard as that is to believe. He unified our world so we all, pureblood, halfblood, and mudblood, stood together against him. Now that he is gone we still stand together and the huge rifts in our society are fading. _

_It's getting cold now and I don't want Ginny to take a chill so I'm going to go. I don't know if you'll ever see me again, if I'll ever visit again, so please watch over me from wherever you are. I wish that even though I did not become the creation you hoped I would be that I still make you proud. _

_I love you father. Goodbye. _

III

Draco Malfoy bent over to kiss the tombstone before rising and ripping the page he had been writing on out of the journal. He dug a little hole in the ground and buried it.

When he returned to Ginny and Blaise his cheeks were dry and there was a smile on his face. As he took their hands it seemed like a great weight lifted off all three of them; a feeling of guilt assuaged or just the feeling of full completeness and of being together.

Draco knew that the rest of their lives would be wonderful so he smiled brightly and walked away from the graves with his little family of four.

The End

--

A.N. Yep, that's it! I'm sorry this was so late in coming out. I was having a lot of trouble getting Draco's personality right. Anyway, I really hope you liked my story. Thank you so much to every reviewer, particularly all those (there are too many, and I'm too lazy, to name them all) who reviewed every chapter. I really appreciate it. All of your comments were taken to heart.

So review one last time and tell me what you thought of the epilogue and what you thought of the whole story!

Thanks again,

Mell8


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